New Cruises on Website

[bungle66]

Anyone else experience a similar issue to me today? I transferred a booking from December '22 to a Fjords cruise in April '23. Lovely lady helped me with the transfer which went smoothly until it came time to pay the additional deposit of £28. Their system wouldn't allow me to pay, it simply wouldn't 'beep' for me to enter my card details. I was passed onto a team leader but same thing happened and then subsequently onto a Manager but still their system wouldn't allow them to take my small payment. I am now waiting for a call from them (which should have come this morning) to resolve the issue. I had already paid a deposit for my previous cruise, so hopefully the booking is safe but I want a confirmation and until it is paid for correctly their system won't generate the confirmation. It's all a worry lol.

[Britboys]

50 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

Anyone else experience a similar issue to me today? I transferred a booking from December '22 to a Fjords cruise in April '23. Lovely lady helped me with the transfer which went smoothly until it came time to pay the additional deposit of £28. Their system wouldn't allow me to pay, it simply wouldn't 'beep' for me to enter my card details. I was passed onto a team leader but same thing happened and then subsequently onto a Manager but still their system wouldn't allow them to take my small payment. I am now waiting for a call from them (which should have come this morning) to resolve the issue. I had already paid a deposit for my previous cruise, so hopefully the booking is safe but I want a confirmation and until it is paid for correctly their system won't generate the confirmation. It's all a worry lol.

The wonderful, weird, wacky world of P&O IT......

[jeanlyon]

Just had confirmation from my TA of transfer of my cruise in April 22 to April 23.  Feel quite relieved.  hopefully things will be more normal by then.

[bungle66]

1 hour ago, bungle66 said:

Anyone else experience a similar issue to me today? I transferred a booking from December '22 to a Fjords cruise in April '23. Lovely lady helped me with the transfer which went smoothly until it came time to pay the additional deposit of £28. Their system wouldn't allow me to pay, it simply wouldn't 'beep' for me to enter my card details. I was passed onto a team leader but same thing happened and then subsequently onto a Manager but still their system wouldn't allow them to take my small payment. I am now waiting for a call from them (which should have come this morning) to resolve the issue. I had already paid a deposit for my previous cruise, so hopefully the booking is safe but I want a confirmation and until it is paid for correctly their system won't generate the confirmation. It's all a worry lol.

Thankfully all sorted now, I had to call them back in the end and hold on the line for 47 minutes but this time their payment system 'beeped' at the correct time and allowed me to make my massive £28 payment! Hooray. I am now in possession of my new booking confirmation and looking forward to my Fjords cruise on 22 April 2023. Only 583 days to patiently wait lol.

[showingdiva]

19 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

Thankfully all sorted now, I had to call them back in the end and hold on the line for 47 minutes but this time their payment system 'beeped' at the correct time and allowed me to make my massive £28 payment! Hooray. I am now in possession of my new booking confirmation and looking forward to my Fjords cruise on 22 April 2023. Only 583 days to patiently wait lol.

 

This is proving a popular cruise   lol!    I just did a bit of a dummy check on the website and the balcony cabins on the curves are filling very quickly.

[Goosebear Mum]

8 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Obviously not as popular hence no visits

obviously; but strange those cruises sold out so quickly previously and were full with no cabins available.  But then Aurora used to be a family ship, and many bemoaned at the time that they won’t be able to do the Christmas market cruise now.   I think P&O are just aiming for the ‘beach brigade now’. Hopefully another cruise line will fill the gap it has left.  Iona is going to Hamburg, but it’s 7 days with 1 day in Hamburg, 2 days in Rotterdam and 1 day in zeebrugge. Not very inspiring having 2 days in Rotterdam. Hamburg is lovely and an overnight there used to be amazing. But this cruise leaves early evening, so even there the evening Christmas market will be impossible. Not quite the Oslo, Copenhagen (Tivoli) or Gothenburg (Liseberg) experience.  

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

obviously; but strange those cruises sold out so quickly previously and were full with no cabins available.  But then Aurora used to be a family ship, and many bemoaned at the time that they won’t be able to do the Christmas market cruise now.   I think P&O are just aiming for the ‘beach brigade now’. Hopefully another cruise line will fill the gap it has left.  Iona is going to Hamburg, but it’s 7 days with 1 day in Hamburg, 2 days in Rotterdam and 1 day in zeebrugge. Not very inspiring having 2 days in Rotterdam. Hamburg is lovely and an overnight there used to be amazing. But this cruise leaves early evening, so even there the evening Christmas market will be impossible. Not quite the Oslo, Copenhagen (Tivoli) or Gothenburg (Liseberg) experience.  

I hang my head in shame I am one of those beach brigade 😔😞

[cruisefan2012]

Pre-registered for a Britannia cruise last week, rang up today to ask what cabin I had been allocated, I hadnt been allocated a cabin at that point, so I asked for a specific cabin and I got it - Happy Days!!

 

Hope everybody else was able to get their desired cabin today

 

[jh1809]

I was just wondering how P&O can justify call booking a cruise before its "official" going on sale as "pre-registering", seeing as they take your deposit immediately rather than waiting the extra week or so. I assume they would refund the deposit if one wasn't happy with what one finished up with?

[Britboys]

50 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I was just wondering how P&O can justify call booking a cruise before its "official" going on sale as "pre-registering", seeing as they take your deposit immediately rather than waiting the extra week or so. I assume they would refund the deposit if one wasn't happy with what one finished up with?

It's basically just a marketing ploy...

[terrierjohn]

54 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I was just wondering how P&O can justify call booking a cruise before its "official" going on sale as "pre-registering", seeing as they take your deposit immediately rather than waiting the extra week or so. I assume they would refund the deposit if one wasn't happy with what one finished up with?

I would read the small print if I were you, I think the act of registering is equal to you making a confirmed booking.  My TA at least rings me if my choice of cabin(s) is not available before committing me to payment.

[jeanlyon]

On 11/11/2021 at 10:36 PM, terrierjohn said:

I would read the small print if I were you, I think the act of registering is equal to you making a confirmed booking.  My TA at least rings me if my choice of cabin(s) is not available before committing me to payment.

Another good reason to use a TA and not book direct.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Another good reason to use a TA and not book direct.

Totally agree. Booking in advance with P&O basically just commits you to a grade of cabin. With a good TA  you can select the exact cabins you are prepared to accept.

I fail to see why anyone books direct,  when it is so much easier to get the exact cabin you want by booking through a TA.

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Totally agree. Booking in advance with P&O basically just commits you to a grade of cabin. With a good TA  you can select the exact cabins you are prepared to accept.

I fail to see why anyone books direct,  when it is so much easier to get the exact cabin you want by booking through a TA.

Don't encourage too many to change wowzz, otherwise we might struggle to get our first choice cabins.😉

[jeanlyon]

Rather makes you wonder if P&O wait until the TAs have all done theirs and then they allocate to the pre-register?

[Bin man]

Always use my TA but had the chance to book on board and get a further £150 obc .which has been  transferred to TA .I never pre reg but because we wanted Aurora certain grade with only 6 cabins we risked pre reg knowing that we would have a chance as been baltic .Once booking opened on the Monday went again to future cruise desk ,cabin had not been assigned but all 6 cabins were available so she booked the one we wanted so might have well have  waited till the opening day which if we had been at home TA would have  just done that .She seemed to say prices could go up if we didn't pre reg but still the same after a week guess they may be on a commission for number of pre reg 

[jeanlyon]

I think the prices stay the same until December.

[pete14]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

I think the prices stay the same until December.

I am not sure that is correct. In my view (which may also not be correct) booking as early as possible is likely to be the cheapest option.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I think the prices stay the same until December.

I thought fluid pricing always kicks in after around 10.00am on the first day of general sale...

[showingdiva]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I think the prices stay the same until December.

 

Just tried a dummy booking on mine, booked direct at 8.30 on day of opening.  Iona, April 2023.  Same grade has risen just shy of £100.

[jeanlyon]

Interesting, just did a dummy booking.  Mine is exactly the same.

[terrierjohn]

7 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Interesting, just did a dummy booking.  Mine is exactly the same.

It all depends on demand Jean, just about the only bit of their IT kit that works is the algorithm that changes prices.

[wowzz]

17 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

It all depends on demand Jean, just about the only bit of their IT kit that works is the algorithm that changes prices.

Exactly - no different to air fares. The more popular the flights/cruises, the more the price will increase.

Having said that, as a rule of thumb, I do believe that P&O prices always tend to increase from launch date.

  From my limited experience,  I have never seen  a cheaper price after making a booking. Even if you have missed the cheap launch fares,  the later you book, the more you pay.  

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Exactly - no different to air fares. The more popular the flights/cruises, the more the price will increase.

Having said that, as a rule of thumb, I do believe that P&O prices always tend to increase from launch date.

  From my limited experience,  I have never seen  a cheaper price after making a booking. Even if you have missed the cheap launch fares,  the later you book, the more you pay.  

That's not always true wowzz, low season caribbean fly cruises often see very low price offers  to try and fill up the airline seats.

[wowzz]

31 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

That's not always true wowzz, low season caribbean fly cruises often see very low price offers  to try and fill up the airline seats.

Fair point - I can see the logic in that.